Here’s my question. Really. This board sees it’s fair share of trolls. I’m not talking the Mark Serlin type who post contraversial stuff sometimes, but good stuff others (like his No Kill Shelter thread). I’m talking about this asshole: http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/004019.html
People here bitch and bitch about trolls, yet they answer these stupid posts? Why not learn to ignore them instead of encouraging them by responding? Hello? His original post was obviously a joke or something. Why answer it?
Day after day you see posts with intelligent questions and 1 or 2 replys. Why do the trolls get 30 replys in a day? I have asked before and it’s never worked. I’m asking again. Outside of the pit, why not just leave these threads to die and encourage these jerks to leave? I’m actually embarrassed to see intelligent posters wasting thier wit and time on these complete morons.
I’m talking about the loverocks, the SaDkOrNyGuYs, etc. For a board that constantly complains in the pit about all the trolls, what kind of trolls there are, etc, we as a group seem unwilling to do the one thing that would chase them away forever. Ignore them completely. Report the post to the mods. Get it closed.
Of course, if you enjoy beating up idiots, fine. Just don’t bitch about the presence of trolls if you’re going to bait them or feed them once they get here.
That’s my mini rant for the day. We now return you to the regular Pit, already in progress.
Zette
Sorry to respond to my own post, but I just realized exactly what this reminds me of. When I was a little girl, my sister used to torment me playing “Repeat”. You know, where they keep saying everything you say, keep mimicking your motions. I used to get so angry I’d cry. I’ll never forget how powerful I felt they day my Dad said “Why don’t you just close your eyes?”
A lot of the intelligently asked questions end quickly because the answers are quickly given. No need to let it drag on.
Troll driven posts tend to grow simply because (speaking for myself) it is intersting to take them on and see how they react. If I get suckered into reading an idiotic thread (like the one you had the link too), then I am probably gonna spend a couple of minutes yanking them around a bit. I do it in the hope that if a troll is completely lamebrained, maybe they will either go away or learn how to use this board.
I don’t hate any of them. I dislike how they go about posting, but hate is a bit strong. A troll would have to do a heck of a lot to warrant me spending enough time caring about their existence to even start hating them.
Well, shut my mouth. It’s also illegal to put squirrels down your pants for the purposes of gambling.
I don’t think SKG or MikePatton are trolls. I think they’re idiots. I tried to steer them into the proper forums for their idiocy, but I’m not above telling them what I think of them in the process.
Exactly. We have been losing sight of what a troll is. A troll is not merely an annoying person. It is an annoying person who posts in a manner that is designed to raise people’s hackles. (see klanman)
Korny and Mike weren’t trolls, they were middle schoolers who showed disrespect to the board and puerile whiny egocentrism by expecting us to give a damn about their ultimately irrelevant relationships in the middle of questions about gravity waves and alternating current.
And I’m not so sure that “they were obviously joking”. Posters who post under different names just to act stupid for a laugh are just as bad as posters who were born stupid. And anyone acting stupid deserves my wrath.
If I wanted smoke blown up my ass, I’d be at home with a pack of cigarettes and a short length of hose.
They’re trolls. Yue politely and kindly tried to steer WhAtShIsNaMe in the right direction and was ignored. Anyone who lacks the common decency to read responses in a thread they fucking started and then has the audacity to post more drivel with the thread is a troll. These morons may not be aware of that fact, but it doesn’t change it.
Reading one of those threads is like watching two kids argue.
Am not!
Are too! Am not!
Are too! Am not!
Are too! Am not!
Are too! Am not!
Are too!
Shortly after becoming a member I posted a topic “Why Feed Trolls?” (Don’t remember how long ago & don’t want to deal with the search engine) To summarize many of the answers: “because it’s fun”.
Personally, I think it’s cruel to tease and torment these poor dumb creatures - reminds me of how my cats play with half-dead mice.
Well, that MikePatton girl hasn’t been back since that one day, so I think she’s gone for good. Sad Korny Guy, or whatever creative capitalization game he’s playing, has stuck around, but I seriously doubt he will much longer.
I don’t think they’re trolls, either. MikePatton was an idiot, and Sad K. Guy is an idiot who doesn’t know when to shut up and walk away. These people serve their purpose on this board: they allow us to blow off some steam, while posing little risk of mutating into Trollus Immortalis, the Troll That Will Not Go Away.
On a side note, I am aware that they do have personal problems, but the fact that they couldn’t take any sort of constructive criticism on where they should seek advice from us engenders little sympathy in self-described anal-retentive stuck-up types like me.
A final note. Sad Korny cannot take constructive criticism, gets mean when he doesn’t get his way, and freely admits he isn’t very bright. His girlfriend, LemonGrl is nice, gracious, smart, and most importantly, can take constructive criticism. Do I detect another Satan/heatherlee pairing in the making?
Maybe flaming incipient trolls is like basic training. Their first posts draw alot of fire, but it’s possible they learn from it and mutate into something better.
Natural SDMB selection will eventually take place. If they continue to post inane topics, they’ll get ignored and peter out. If they chime in on other threads with nothing but drivel, they’ll probably either get ignored or one-line dismissals.
In the meantime, they’ll either get toasted and learn, or they’ll get discourged and leave.
Survival of the fittest, and most trolls ain’t fit.
For the few that refuse to mutate, I propose that, unless and until they begin to observe the same courtesies that everyone else does, all anyone needs to say to them is something like, “So you say.” They’ll eventually get the picture.
(The courtesies I refer to are all contained under the “Don’t Be A Jerk” rule. They’re unwritten, and debatable, but there is a general sort of understanding about them.)
Or not. Who cares? They’re trolls.
“Sharpen your cutlasses. There may be skullduggery ahead.” The Penguin
I wonder if I am what this board refers to as a troll. Although, a lot of times when I post, I couldn’t care less about what anyone says after that. So I know it isn’t attention I crave. Maybe I just enjoy the fact that someone else will read it and react to it somehow. Now that, my virtual friends, is power.
The ever insensitive, politically incorrect PitBullDawg
Why do you flame the “trolls” and not the “people who respond to trolls”? Typically, the trolls have something more intelligent, informative, and thought-provocative to write.
dlv, that is one of the funniest things I have heard in a while. Remind me not to read your posts while drimking my coffee.
On the subject of trolls, I don’t have a very strong opinion. I believe we have manny posters here who are too quick with the label. A person can be a jerk without being a troll. Posting one or two profoundly stupid things does not a troll make. A true troll has to really work at being obnoxious and incendiary.
Dr. Fidelius, Charlatan
Associate Curator Anomalous Paleontology, Miskatonic University
“You cannot reason a man out of a position he did not reach through reason.”
